North Sterling State Park starting construction on marina bay re-sloping

Project aimed to address erosion issues means delay for new stairways

STERLING -- Drivers may notice a lot of semi trucks headed out to North Sterling State Park in he coming weeks. They're hauling materials out to the reservoir for a construction project that started on Monday. "We're doing some work in the marina bay right there at our office, where the marina concession was and where the boat slips are," park manager David Piper told the Rotary Club on Wednesday.

That area has had an erosion issue that's led to problems with the foundation in the buildings and shop at the park and problems with the visitor center "kind of cracking in half and separating a little bit," Piper said. In addition, a sewer line is getting close to being impacted and waterlines could potentially be impacted.

About six years ago a study was started on the marina bay, looking at the soil compositions and how much leeching of water there is through the ground and trying to prepare for the construction project. Great Outdoors Colorado lottery money was set aside for the project about four years ago.

"It was just a matter of time, of waiting for a low water year, because the lake has to be dry to be able to do the project," Piper said.

The bay has to be dry because the machinery they're using doesn't float.

Before work could begin, they had to get a permit from the Corps of Engineers and the State Historical Preservations Offices required a cultural study of the area, which requires the water to be removed.

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Piper said the project is going to be pretty big."It's going to reslope the entire marina bay. So, it's going to be two to one slope even, all the way inside the bay. Right now it's kind of a gradual slope, to a steep slope, to undercut banks, it's got all sorts of different topography inside that bay."

They will riprap the entire bay with rock being trucked in from the Morrison area, which is going to be costly.

"I've had a lot of questions lately about people asking, 'Well, you've had budget cuts out there; they've closed down a state park here or there -- what's the future of North Sterling?" Piper said. "Well, I think if the agency's going to come in and spend $1.3 million on a marina bay restoration that should tell you that we're going to be around for awhile."

The crew is going to do everything they can to get the project done before the water fills up the bay.

Piper said the contractor's plan to build in two levels."They're going to do the entire bottom, so they can build a bench and as the water comes in they can continue to work above the water."

Semi's started coming in Wednesday with bedding rock. There will be about 24 to 30 trucks a day coming from the Morrison area to deliver the bedding.

"So there's going to be a lot of semis coming through town headed toward the reservoir," Piper said.

Once all the bedding is in and everything is sloped up, then they'll start bringing in the riprap, which will be at least 700 semi loads.

"They are going to move fast and they do have to get it done this year, so they're going to do everything they can," Piper said.

Typically on contract like this construction is only allowed from 7 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m. Because there isn't a lot of visitation right now and the construction is by the office, where it shouldn't impact visitors too much, Piper is allowing construction from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

He did point out that the construction is going to delay the concrete stairways that are going to be put in from the marina building down the marina slips.

Right now a set of metal stairs goes down to the boat slips, but, Piper noted, metal doesn't work well in water -- it rusts.

"The last three years those slicks have not come out of the water completely for us to go down there and strip off all the paint, check for broken wells and rust issues, repaint it and prep them for the next year," Piper said. "So they were going to replace them with concrete stairways."

The existing stairways will be removed during construction and then put back, so there is still access and the next year if there's a low water year the new stairway will be put in.

"The stairs will be going in, it's just not this year," Piper said. "I have been told that the money is there for them, it will be held and they will go in."

While the erosion is causing issues, he's also hoping there will be a benefit, that it will beautify the bay and make it more appealing.

"I'm hoping it will provide incentive to bring in a good concessionaire at some point," Piper said. "We need a marina concession out there really bad."

"I'm not saying the bay looked ugly by any means; it's a reservoir. But I think it will make it a little more appealing to a potential concessionaire up there, to see that bay re-sloped, know that there's not going to be an issue with the concession building falling off into the lake someday or something."

Additionally, Piper mentioned that he's working on putting together an open house sometime in late November or early December in Sterling with a variety of officials present so people can ask questions about the fish kill, the construction, hunting, park management and so on.

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